Haven`t missed being in movies, says busy mother Aishwarya

Unired Nations: Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the newly appointed Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS, says motherhood has kept her extremely busy for the past year and she hasn`t had much time to miss being in movies.

The 38-year-old actress said she feels "blessed" to have her daughter, 10-month old Aaradhya in her life and feels that she will be "gushing for the rest of my life" over her. Motherhood is "bliss like I have never experienced. Each passing day you feel blessed with such joys," Aishwarya told reporters here. She said children are a blessing from god and motherhood is an experience which is tough to define. "It is wonderful, beautiful, glorious. I can`t find the perfect adjective for it," she said. Having been away from the movies for over two years now, Aishwarya said she has not had the time to miss her movie career as motherhood has kept her extremely busy. "I have not even felt the time fly by. Any mother would know that you have no concept of day or night. Time just flies by, there is so much going on. I have no idea how the last 10 months have flown by. I want to be with my daughter all the time. That is the choice I have made. It is my personal choice and I love being with her. She is my angel," Aishwarya said. The former Miss World, who has been associated with various social causes ever since she won the Miss World title in 1994, will now work as the UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador and help the agency meet its goal of eliminating new HIV infections among children by 2015. She had a packed day in New York, appearing at the United Nations with UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe, participating at a panel discussion with fellow Goodwill Ambassador actress Naomi Watts at the Yale Club here and then meeting India`s Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri. Aishwarya said she was approached by the UN ten years ago to work with it on select causes but she decided to put it on hold as she was busy with the movie projects then. "I feel I can focus on the work of the UNAIDS today. As a mother, I have taken time out from my career for the last 10 months. I can now plan my time ahead," she said. Aishwarya said she does not see her association with UNAIDS as a loss for the film industry and she will continue to be an actor and brand ambassador for products. "I am in the public eye, I am actor and brand ambassador for products - that world will continue as and how I plan it. I have not become a saint overnight and I have not renounced the world. I intend to keeping my public work going on and through that be able to redirect some of the energy into positive work." Aishwarya, who had aspired to be a doctor, said healthcare has always been extremely important to her and feels that a lot of work needs to be done in a country like India in the area of healthcare for women and their children. "Even though women in India are immensely empowered, they are still socially shy and reluctant to go through basic medical check ups. I fear that women in India would still somewhere believe that if you are infected with the HIV virus, that is a death sentence," she said. There is a need to educate women that despite being infected with HIV, they can have healthy children and there is medical help available for them. "Women tend to put themselves last, health comes last on their agenda but we need to tell them that if they are not healthy they cannot take care of their family. "There is so much work to be done. Along with UNAIDS I am hoping that we can make the goal of having an entire generation born free of HIV, possible by 2015. It will be historic. It is not the only goal, there is work that needs to be done for a long time to come," she said. PTI